Many state agencies don’t plan more security spending
After the Department of Revenue was hacked last year, many of South Carolina’s biggest agencies have decided not to spend more money on cybersecurity, The Greenville News reported.
The newspaper’s survey of the 20 largest state agencies found that six aren’t asking the state legislature for more money, six plan to spend a total of $5.9 million more next year and four haven’t yet decided whether they’ll need more cybersecurity funds.
“Just because your system is old doesn’t mean we can’t protect the data,” Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, who chairs the Senate subcommittee investigating the hacking, told The Greenville News. “I’m surprised every agency isn’t requesting a whole new upgrade under the veil of security.”
USC is among the state agencies planning to spend more to improve security, with Secure Carolina, a $2-million initiative The Daily Gamecock reported on last year.
—Thad Moore, News Editor
Colbert campaigns for sister over weekend
Stephen Colbert made a trip to his hometown over the weekend to stump for his sister, Elizabeth Colbert Busch.
Colbert Busch is running as a Democrat in the special election to fill the 1st Congressional District seat vacated by Sen. Tim Scott.
After a $5,200-a-plate fundraiser Friday at New York’s Boulud Sud, Colbert and Colbert Busch headed to The Alley, a bowling alley in downtown Charleston, for a Saturday reception that wasn’t open to media, according to The Post and Courier. Tickets to get in cost $250, the Charleston City Paper reported.
Colbert told The Post and Courier he “couldn’t be happier” to campaign for his sister.
Colbert Busch will face Ben Frasier in the March 19 Democratic primary before a special election for the seat May 7.
—Thad Moore, News Editor
SC State to fix monument with incorrect initial
South Carolina State University plans to fix a monument on its campus that honors three students who were killed in the “Orangeburg Massacre.”
The monument incorrectly lists Delano H. Middleton’s middle initial as a “B,” The (Orangeburg) Times and Democrat reported, and to his family and friends, it makes all the difference.
Middleton, a high school student at the time, died along with a freshman and sophomore at S.C. State on Feb. 8, 1968.
Just where the mistake came from is unknown, but Middleton was often called “Bump,” so some think that may be the source.
“Having the correct name printed means everything,” Sam Haynes, a friend of Middleton’s, told The (Orangeburg) Times and Democrat. “I’m sure if ‘Bump’ was here and it was one of his friends, he would advocate that it be done the right way. That’s the kind of person he exemplified daily.”
—Thad Moore, News Editor